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Louise Line: Today’s Health Care Vote

Today, Congressional Republicans passed their dangerous health care repeal bill in the House. I am proud to say that I stood with the American people in voting against this awful proposal.

Despite all the partisan spin and recent changes to this legislation, the facts remain the same: essential health benefits like doctors’ visits, maternity care, and prescription drug coverage would be eviscerated, twenty-four million people would lose their health insurance, people between the ages of 50 and 64 would be forced to pay thousands in a crushing age tax, and Medicaid would be decimated with a $800 billion cut to pay for a nearly trillion dollar tax break to the wealthiest in our nation.

It gets worse. This bill shreds the safety net for those with pre-existing conditions and forces tens of millions of Americans to once again face discrimination by big insurance companies who are only in business to make a profit. With this plan, domestic violence, c-sections, and sexual assault will become pre-existing conditions. All of this is in spite of the president falsely claiming just days ago that this repeal bill “will have much lower premiums and deductibles while at the same time taking care of pre-existing conditions."

I’ve always said that a bad process produces a bad result. The Republicans’ process could not have been worse. The Majority was obviously terrified by the thought of the public seeing the consequences of their bill and decided to rush it through the House without a non-partisan Congressional Budget Office score or holding a single hearing. This means that members of Congress had no idea how much this dangerous proposal will cost or its impacts on our insurance market before casting their vote. We do know that Congressional Republicans are hurling our nation toward disaster with a health care bill that’s a devastating blow to nearly every American while rewarding the wealthiest among us. It’s robin hood in reverse and radically irresponsible.

Republicans in Washington have rushed to fulfill a dangerous political talking point, but the American people don’t have a thing in the world to celebrate with this bill.

I am outraged by what Republicans in Congress have done today. But we must not give up. The battle to protect the Affordable Care Act and for affordable, quality coverage for all Americans must continue. I stand with each of you in this fight.